NO AGENDA 1

Sooooo I just want to share more random-ass shiz here.

That probably sounds bad.

But it's not. It's good!

At least I think it will be.

So, byyyyye to only polished work a self inflicted censorship!

Here's to making bad art, strange choices, or going in interesting artistic and design directions and showing all of it anyway.

Life's too short and art making rocks!

Using big chunks of butcher paper, India Ink, paint brushes and listening to The Beatles.

It's a love that lasts forever
It's a love that had no past

HAD TO!!!! Illustration with found objects is my favorite sub-genre of illustration right now.

Here's an example.

YOU CALL THAT DRAWN?

I have made just over 6 months worth of cards so far! I can't believe this project is going by so quickly.

In the beginning I was so excited to start, but by the time I hit the second month I was a little overwhelmed. I was worried that I would lose the passion and be phone-ing it in before the year was up. BUT I'm very happy to tell you that my fear had no legs to stand on. I'm just as fired up as ever.

Now that I'm more than halfway done I've noticed a distinct shift in my cards. I've been drawing less.

This project is called Drawn & Delivered because when I first got started I wanted to push my simple pen to paper drawing skills and embrace my style. In the beginning that's what I did, and for some cards I still do that. However, more and more I am using my drawing skills to sketch my cards before I make them. The cards I send out are more constructed and designed rather than drawn. I am really pleased with this revelation because it means that I'm growing and trying new skills for my willing recipients and that I'm not putting unnecessary rules over this project. This sense of freedom has started to combine with my design work too. I like to take my time with different analog mediums before going digital. You learn so much as a designer just by drawing or trying a new skill.

With that, here's a collection of cards that I've made that push the term drawn a little further.

A little 'muppet' card with googly eyes and purple felt. Perfect for a toddler to laugh at. This design is so simple and so much fun!

I have been very interested in playing with color and texture, especially as a way to show energy. The concept of this card is to send a friend some extra energy.

This probably looks familiar to you, yes, it is an Adventure Time themed card! I think that show is so good. If I had kids I would for sure watch this show with them happily. I liked the idea of using Jake, the dog (side kick to twelve year old main character, Finn) as the focus. Instead of drawing, I cut construction paper out and layered it to make this card happen.

This card is a lot more conceptual than anything else I've done to this point. I loved using uncommon materials, in this case cardboard, to convey a message of positivity. This card relies on symbolism and metaphor. It's funny because it almost felt like cheating going in such an unconventional direction, but as I got going I had the biggest smile on my face. I want these cards to be fun, dang it! Especially fun for me to make. I like to think that this sense of fun is received by the recipient of the card.

THE VOICE OF A LOGO

One of my favorite areas of design is…

branding!

Merging personality and position with visual elements is as exciting to me as meeting a new person and learning allllll of their stories! IMO, building a brand is at it's best when it is sharing true intention.

I recently had the chance to work on a campaign logo for my father who will be running for local office next fall. Cue all bad memories of tacky campaign logos…NOW… In order to avoid, avoid avoid! the tacky train, we discussed early on what the main focuses are for the position he is running for. From there I got to work on creating a meaningful logo that would accompany any campaign materials he would need to produce. Since running a campaign is a loooong process, it was important to get to work right away.

The area in which the campaign will be run is a rural part of northern Michigan so agriculture and nature are of huge value to the community. Since my father shares in these passion, it was important to highlighting that in the logo.

preliminary notebook sketches

sketches digitally coming to life

full color version of the finished logo

Here is an explanation of the logo in greater depth: 

At the bottom, the name anchors the logo in red. From there the blue field, which represents the water of the bay, contrasts with your name to give a visual nod to the American flag and being patriotic. Next up, there is the warm brown color which represents the farm land and agriculture. At the top we have a tall triangle that represents a tree and the shape of a sun setting, this is to signify nature. These forms all come together to form a triangle that points upward to represent progress and 'moving up' coming from the candidate.

In the development of a brand's logo it is important to have a great amount of knowledge of the project (or company) before even starting! Maybe it's back story, goals, personality… As you become familiar with the brand position, working on it's visual representation becomes, maybe not easy, but way easier! I always let intention be my guide. Stylistic trends and effects are the furthest thing from my mind.

I hope you enjoyed this look at finding the voice of a logo, brand discovery and how integrated design starts! This form of branding is something I find true passion working within.

Intentional + Heartfelt = a brand's happy place!

UPDATES & MOTIVATION

Welcome once again to my digital playground!

Today I thought I would share some new posts that I added to my Society6 shop, being that it IS gift giving season and all ;) these newly added pieces are all from my Daily Intention series that I regularly share to Instagram.

Shameless self promotion aside, I wanted to chat with you about motivation and LEARNING TO LOVE THE PROCESS.

The process of making these daily drawings has given me greater clarity of what I have to say as a designer and illustrator. Lately I focus on positivity, puns, simplicity and freedom, all of which are attributes that I reach for each day of my life. These themes come from my desire to enjoy the act of making more than holding the end result too tightly.

As I become closer to my art practice I have been learning that there's really no end, or no right answers, there is only the process and effort.

To love the process is to love the art. As soon as I realized this, the act of creation has become immeasurably more fun!

My process looks a little like this:

1. Fill your time with experiences, such as reading, watching films, trying something new, traveling.
2. Reflect on how you've been feeling, write it down, talk with friends.
3. Use the tools that interest you the most to express yourself.
4. Take what you can from what you made and let it go.

The posting and sharing is all well and good, but they only act as milestones. The desire to move on to the next thing comes from loving the act of picking up your tools and trying something new, solving a new riddle, discovering new land.

I hope this gives you a little better idea of why these themes in my designs are so important to me and why I am inspired by them.

Enjoy your day and LOVE the process!

TEARS OF JOY

History repeats itself. 

If you've taken ANY history class at all, you learn that quickly. So when I read the news about the 'tears of joy' emoji (or as I like to think of it, the LOL emoji) being named as the Word of the Year by Oxford Dictionaries I had to 😂😂😂

I find it odd and wonderful that pictograms are back, in such a big way. 

Back when humans were a young species, before the written word, we had cave paintings like those found in the French cave of Lascaux and a bit further south lived the iconic hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt. Pictures told the stories of the human experience.

I use emojis on the REGULAR as punctuation and in conjunction with words via text and social media. It is as if these little emojis express something that words simply cannot.

I think people love them because they are easy to use, cute, and provide a good visual break among a TL;DR amount of words. I also believe that it reconnects us to part of our human experience that our modern selves haven't used in a long time (emoticons, aside).

Yes, emojis can seem lazy or as just a fad of modern technology but I find it interesting that it pulls us back to the oldest form or record keeping and human expression. I'm not saying that we should abandon words again and only write documents in emojis. HOWEVER! Wouldn't you love to see the iTunes terms and conditions form written in little faces and food pictures? Sounds brilliant to me.

On a slightly more serious note on this silly topic, I find the combination of pictures and words to be an indication to how people prefer visual, easy to digest communication in modern media consumption. I am seriously WAITING for a book or magazine to throw emojis in their body copy. Call that crazy all you want, it probably is, but there is something about that idea that thrills me! I believe it's because it fully embraces where we are today in culture and communication. Expect to see it! I have a feeling we will.

Something I also find interesting is that there is a distinct difference in interpretation of these 'picture characters' (the direct translation of the Japanese word 'Emoji'). Like I said earlier, my interpretation of this > 😂 was 'laughing out loud' instead of 'tears of joy'. Both translations work well depending on their context.

The embrace of emojis as a way to communicate takes me back to learning about the history of art and design. This is because emojis are becoming an artifact of our history—a design element, even. It all feels very full circle and that we are much closer to our ancestors than we think.

We don't really know what the Lascaux cave paintings were saying all those years ago. We can guess, we can even have very educated guesses! I imagine that 10,000 years from now emojis will be the same.